About a week ago I was getting some chapstick out of my purse; it wouldn't come out and I had to reach my finger way down into the pocket to reach it.
I felt something metal at the bottom of the pocket.
I pulled out a silver ring with what looked like some Egyptian hieroglyphs on it.
I was speechless that this ring had been in my purse for weeks--months, even--and I had never found it before.
As I looked at it more closely, I realized that these were not Egyptian hieroglyphs at all, but the tree of life, the iron rod, and Lehi's family coming to it.
I had been having a very, very hard week, and I felt that this was God's way of telling me that He still loved me and that He knew I could endure to the end.
A few days after I found it and wore it every day, I lost it. I must have been in a bathroom on campus, took it off to wash my hands, and forgotten about it.
I was heartbroken.
I felt like this ring was mine, God had given it to me because I needed it...
but if somebody else needed it more than I did, I guess I could give it up.
I tried my hardest to forget about it.
Flashforward about 4 days to today, November 21.
I finished my shift at work and started digging in my backpack looking for my keys so I could come back to the office if I needed to--they weren't there.
I emptied my entire backpack.
Nothing.
I looked in the office drawers, in the back room, in the bathroom around the corner from where I worked--
Nothing.
I officially started freaking out inside.
This lanyard had my school ID card, my debit card, my building key, and my room key.
If somebody had gotten a hold of my debit card, that would be very, very bad.
I walked to the bottom of the Wilk, scared of what I knew would happen.
There was no way that my keys would be there, there's no way.
They're probably still in the Clyde building where my Physics class is, and that classroom is definitely locked this late at night.
But maybe, just maybe...
I got to the Lost and Found, where somebody had taken my journal a few weeks ago.
I asked the girl if somebody had turned in keys in the past few hours.
She pulled out the bin where all of the keys and keys on lanyards were turned in.
Keys on keyrings, keys on lanyards, keys forever alone...
but none of them were mine.
I said they weren't there, so terrified of where they could be that I didn't know about. But I might as well ask about the ring while I'm here.
I described the ring to her and told her I had lost it only days earlier.
She went to the back and came back with a ring that fit my description perfectly--except it wasn't my ring. This ring was made of a different metal, it was lighter. But it did have the exact same picture on it.
She said she might have seen a different ring like this one.
She went to the back and came back with another ring--my ring!
I was so happy I could have hugged the girl.
As I was filling out the sheet with my name and the date, I had the thought to mention to her that my keys also had my ID card and credit card on them...maybe it would make a difference?
I told her, and a switch flipped.
She said somebody had brought some in. She asked for my name, and went to the back--
and came out with my lanyard. Keys, debit card, ID and all.
There have not been many moments in my life where I felt so loved, so looked out for.
In that moment I knew without a doubt in my mind that God knows me.
God loves me.
God will take care of me.
He knows what I need, He knows it so much better than I think I do.
When I tell Him what I think I need, no, no I don't know.
He knows. He knows what I need, He knows who I am supposed to associate with, He knows what needs to happen to me.
Why wouldn't I want to put my trust in Him?
Why wouldn't I want to obey Him to the letter?
He will bless me when I do what's right, I know that without a doubt in my mind.
I am so grateful that He gave me back what I lost.
I don't know why He decided I was worthy of this ring, and it seems so stupid...
but every time I look at it, it reminds me that I can endure to the end. And it reminds me that the only way to get to the tree of life is by holding onto the iron rod always.
I love my Heavenly Father. Thank goodness He is there for me.
Because if He wasn't, I don't know where I would be. <3
